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Code for Africa hosts drone camp for journalists

Sibahle Malinga
By Sibahle Malinga, ITWeb senior news journalist.
Johannesburg, 15 Jul 2016
Journalists need more tools which allow them to harvest data around sensory journalism, says Code for Africa's Chris Roper.
Journalists need more tools which allow them to harvest data around sensory journalism, says Code for Africa's Chris Roper.

Code for Africa this week hosted a free three-day drone boot camp for journalists and media innovators who want to take their photography skills to the next level.

The pan-African network of technology hubs says it aims to push new technology to help newsrooms and civil society organisations produce new ways of telling stories, using unmanned aerial vehicletechnology.

The boot camp, in Cape Town, also aimed to educate journalists about the legislation and laws around using drones commercially in SA.

Chris Roper, senior knight fellow at Code for Africa and the International Centre for Journalists, says journalists need more tools which allow them to collect more data.

He notes drones can be used not only to capture images but also to harvest data around sensory journalism, which involves using drone sensors to detect characteristics of physical world properties such as light, heat, sound, pressure, vibration, air quality and moisture.

"In journalism, drones are used to capture moving footage and situations. One could also gather data about a disaster such as the effects of an oil spill damage, stitch together the images, and create a virtual reality experience where readers can actually walk through a story and not only view still images."

"It's important for journalists to learn how to give readers and viewers a better viewpoint and new angles of the story, such as showing them the road traffic challenges instead of merely telling them about the traffic," says Cape Town photographer Johnny Miller.

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